DIY No-Sew Dragon Cape

When I was requested to make a dragon costume for Purim, I knew it would be very loosely a “dragon costume” and in the end, on account of the king masquerade mask, the recipient deemed it “king of the dragons” meaning a very nice king who encourages good things! The most important part of the costume is of course the cape, which suggests dragon wings and makes the costume dramatic and fun. Little elastic wrist bands sewn to the inside at the end of each wing means that when the child raises his hands he has wings! And while you can’t see it in this photo, the inside is the orange color you see peaking through, which made the whole thing fun and lively. I’m so glad I didn’t go with black or grey as I had originally envisioned, phew! This cape is quite easy to make, and you can choose to sew it or glue it.

I took this photo before I lost my daylight, and before I decided to sew everything together as I did not know where my iron on adhesive was. I have made a few other costume capes, like an eagle and a peacock, and those were glued as that was pre-buying a sewing machine for the daughter! In any case if you need to make a cape for a loved one, I hope this idea will be a hit! Ah yes, and in case you examined the photo, I made the dark green pieces with felt I had on hand, which explains why there are multiple pieces. And then a funny thing happened, because of using those multiple pieces there ended up being pockets, which I had promised to put on the inside! This small change in the design was well received fortunately, and the costume was a hit, yippee!

You’ll Need:

• acrylic craft felt or heavyweight cotton fabric (which would hold up better for re-use in subsequent years)
• some dinner plates and round platters of various sizes
• good scissors and a marker
• pins
• iron on adhesive or a sewing machine
• ribbon for neck tie
• elastic to make wrist bands

How To:

1. Measure the length of the childs (or persons) armspan, namely from wrist to wrist with their arms held out. This length is the maximum width of your cape. MIne was 90cm.
2. Starting with either a half circle or a triangle whose top edge is, in my case 90cm, form the shape of the cape by using a large round serving plate, a dinner plate, and maybe a salad plate to trace arcs with your marker onto the base. Cut out these arcs to form your dragon wing base shape, and then cut pieces in dark green as seen in the photo. Add light green pieces at the end, and the neck tie. On the other side make little elastic band bracelts and sew or glue those to the ends of the wings.
3. Sorry if this sounds a bit unclear, I must run to finish our Purim preparations, and honestly I think you can just look at my photo and see all the elements that you need to cut, right?
4. If you are using heavy duty iron-on adhesive it is wise to iron on the adhesive before you cut the shapes.
5. Enjoy!